From “Software für die Automatisierung—Transparenz über die Abläufe schaffen” (Software for automation—Creating process transparency), an article by Dirk Kozian in Elektronik für Automatisierung (Automation Electronics) 11, 17.11.1999, it is known that what are known as Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) can be used to automate production and manufacturing processes. These systems integrate the automation level or controls with the corporate-level ERP systems (ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning). Manufacturing Execution Systems are systems, which for example supply information for optimizing production processes. On the one hand the Manufacturing Execution Systems have to extend the general planning data of the ERP systems to include unit-specific and up-to-date detailed planning data and forward this correspondingly to the lower-level automation level and on the other hand they have the task of extracting production-relevant information from the automation level, processing this and forwarding it to the corporate level. MES systems thereby perform the role of vertical integration between corporate level and automation level. Typical individual tasks of MES systems are Enterprise Asset Management, Maintenance Management, Information Management, Scheduling, Dispatching and Trace & Track. These tasks are executed by MES components and MES applications respectively.
From “Communicating and Mobile Systems: the Π calculus”, Robin Milner, Cambridge University Press, 1999, it is known that asynchronously cooperating state machines can be used to model communication systems.
In “Rechnerunterstützte Methoden und Werkzeuge in der industriellen Automatisierung” (Computer-aided methods and tools in industrial automation), B. Howein and Dr. B. Gaiβmaier, in it 3/91, it is proposed that the formal design technique SDL (Specification and Description Language) be used for the design of software systems for industrial automation and that tests be carried out at design level. The procedure described there however relates to software solutions for automation level (controls) and is therefore not ideal.